Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Need traditional starting load

Coming back into traditional muzzleloading after a 25 year hiatus. Shooting a TC New Englander .50 cal. Pyrodex RS and 320 gr maxi balls and Thor 250 gr. Bullets. What’s a good starting charge? And where does potential danger start? Seems I recall 90-100grs is what I used to use with a different rifle. That still a safe range?

90 to 100 would be fine.

Just about right

I've used the 50 cal T/C 320gr maxi to take nine cow elk in Colorado. Loaded it with 90grs FFG Goex in my Traditions Hawken Woodsman caplock.

Blowing down the barrel after the shot to keep fouling soft helps reloads.

Too much powder will hinder ignition.

I like real BP for consistency and ease of lighting.

80gr will work too and kick less in that light rifle with the Maxi. The Hawken manual I have lists 110 as the top load, but that might be a bit too much fun.

I’d also prefer BP, or 777 over Pyrodex, which I recall being harder to light than either of the others, especially BP. I understand options may be limited right now.

Exactly. Pyrodex is what I could get my hands on.

Thanks all for the confirmation.

After only using inlines, I, too, have expanded to a traditional sidelock. I have a Traditions Hawken Woodsman .50 cal. The first load I tried, is very traditional: a .490 round ball in a .015 patch over 90 grains of Pyrodex RS and a Winchester Magnum no. 11 cap. I also tried 100 grains. Both are very accurate. I'll probably hunt with the 100 grain load. I see no difference in accuracy so I don't see a downside to the slight increase in velocity and energy the 10 extra grains of Pryodex will add.

Cap locks and BP substitutes are not a good combination.

Is this a new opinion? And widely shared now? 20 years ago it seemed like Pyrodex was preferred. I never had any ignition problems that I recall.

Pryrodex RS lights fine with a good no.11. I haven't had any misfires or hang fires yet. In fact, both my MLs have "Pryodex" printed on the barrel.

I remember being told musket caps wouldn't light Pyrodex pellets after years of shooting my inline with musket caps and Pyrodex pellets with nary an issue. More recently I've been told musket caps won't light 777 pellets. Someone forget to tell my gun . Musket caps light them just fine. (As long as they aren't newish CCI musket caps, they really have trouble lighting anything.)

All you can do it try it and see. I have, and have not experienced any issues with Pryrodex RS and no.11 caps or musket caps.

I know a fair number of fellas the had issues with the use of BP subs in caplocks and this dates back to the time of their introduction. YMMV

FWIW, I’ve used Pyrodex RS and Select, and 777 in caplocks. Pyrodex was harder to light with #11s, and I gave up on it pretty quickly and went back to BP. Later I tried 777 and liked the way it shot and found it easy to ignite, but sometimes it goes bad, clumping up in the jug and failing to burn properly. This was in properly closed and stored containers, before anyone starts about THAT. I know how to store powder. Since other 777 stored in the same place was fine, I have to assume it’s a manufacturing issue with some lots. Have some right now that’s a couple years old, and will find out soon how it’s lasted. This is a widely known issue, and perhaps they’ve corrected it.

Good thing about 777 is it is powerful and accurate. Bad thing is the crud ring it forms, in all its many forms apparently, but that’s not an issue for hunting, and only a minor issue for target shooting. If BP is unavailable, 777 is what I’d use. Keep that crud ring brushed or patched out, and you can keep on shooting. For hunting, I’d make damn sure the batch I was using was good very shortly before going out. I’ll use up what I have left, and then it’ll be BP only in my musket as long as I can get it.

BH209 needs a hot ignition, some compression, and a projectile that provides some bore resistance. You need hot primers, caps need not apply, so without some trickery it’s not applicable here.

There are some other new subs, but I’ve not investigated them as yet.

I have a couple pounds of triple seven on hand. It doses a fair job. Runs very good in cap& ball pistols. The crud ring can be dealt with.